The vanishing of submersible Titan during its expedition to explore the Titanic wreckage has sparked inquiries into the inherent perils of deep-sea expeditions.
Exploring the depths of the ocean where the Titanic rests presents a formidable challenge due to the unique characteristics of this region. The darkness envelops the deep sea, with sunlight unable to penetrate beyond approximately 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) from the surface. This perpetual darkness designates the Titanic’s location within the aptly named “midnight zone.”
Venturing to the wreck site entails descending for over two hours through utter darkness until the ocean floor emerges under the glow of the submersible’s lights, resembling a truck in size. However, visibility remains limited to only a few meters, leaving explorers susceptible to disorientation in this vast underwater expanse.
Embarking on a submarine journey to visit the Titanic is an extraordinary experience. Descending into the depths of the ocean, you enter a realm that is shrouded in mystery and awe-inspiring in its vastness. As the submersible delves deeper, the familiar world above gradually fades away, replaced by an otherworldly environment.
Inside the sub, you are enclosed in a small, specialized vessel built to withstand the immense pressure of the deep sea. As you descend, the anticipation builds, knowing that you are about to witness one of the most iconic shipwrecks in history. The journey can take several hours, and the submersible’s lights illuminate the surrounding darkness, revealing the mesmerizing underwater landscape.
When you finally reach the Titanic’s resting place, the sight is both haunting and captivating. The colossal wreck lies silently on the ocean floor, bearing witness to the tragic events that unfolded more than a century ago. Exploring the remains of this once majestic ship, you can’t help but feel a profound sense of history and contemplate the stories of the lives lost.
Visiting the Titanic on a sub is a reminder of the fragility of human endeavors and the enduring power of nature. It’s a humbling experience that allows you to connect with a significant moment in time while being surrounded by the vastness and beauty of the deep ocean.
Exploring the Titanic’s Depths: Navigating the Ocean Floor and Withstanding Crushing Pressures
In a captivating video, Mike Reiss shares his personal experience of journeying to the Titanic on a previous expedition. While the depths of the ocean pose significant challenges, advancements in technology have aided exploration. Detailed maps of the Titanic wreck site, meticulously constructed through years of high-resolution scanning, offer valuable reference points as objects come into view. Sonar systems enable the crew to detect features and objects beyond the limited range of the submersible’s lights.
Submersible pilots rely on inertial navigation, a technique that utilizes accelerometers and gyroscopes to determine their position and orientation relative to a known starting point and velocity. OceanGate’s Titan submersible boasts a cutting-edge self-contained inertial navigation system, complemented by a Doppler Velocity Log acoustic sensor. This sophisticated combination allows for estimating depth and speed in relation to the ocean floor.
Nevertheless, reaching the ocean floor proves to be a daunting task for passengers on previous trips to the Titanic with OceanGate. Mike Reiss, known for his work on The Simpsons, vividly describes the challenge of finding their way upon touching the bottom. In the pitch-darkness of the abyss, they found themselves blindly searching for the legendary ship, aware that it lurked somewhere nearby. It took them 90 minutes to locate the colossal vessel, even though it was merely 500 yards (1,500ft) away.
The depths of the ocean subject any object to immense water pressure. At a seabed depth of 3,800m (12,500ft) where the Titanic rests, the surrounding environment experiences pressures of approximately 40MPa, nearly 390 times greater than those at the surface. To put this into perspective, it is roughly 200 times the pressure within a car tire. Robert Blasiak, an ocean researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, emphasizes the necessity for submersibles with robust construction to withstand such forces.
The Titan submersible, constructed with carbon-fiber and titanium walls, possesses the capability to operate at a maximum depth of 4,000m (13,123ft). These resilient materials ensure the safety and integrity of the submersible in the face of extreme underwater pressures.
Bottom currents
Unveiling the Mysteries of Underwater Currents: Mapping the Titanic’s Submerged Currents
While we are more familiar with strong surface currents that can disrupt boats and swimmers, the deep ocean is home to its own network of underwater currents. Although typically not as powerful as their surface counterparts, these currents still involve the movement of substantial water masses. They are influenced by various factors such as surface winds impacting the water column below, deep-water tides, and variations in water density caused by temperature and salinity, known as thermohaline currents. Additionally, rare benthic storms, often connected to surface eddies, can trigger sporadic and forceful currents capable of sweeping away materials on the seabed.
Our understanding of the underwater currents surrounding the Titanic, which split into two main sections after the bow and stern separated upon sinking, stems from extensive research analyzing seabed patterns and the movement of squid in the vicinity.
A portion of the Titanic wreck lies in close proximity to an area affected by the Western Boundary Undercurrent, a cold southward-flowing stream. This “bottom current” generates migrating dunes, ripples, and ribbon-shaped patterns in the sediment and mud along the ocean floor, providing valuable insights into its strength. Most of the formations observed on the seabed are associated with relatively mild to moderate currents.
Sand ripples along the eastern edge of the Titanic debris field, comprised of scattered belongings, fittings, fixtures, coal, and fragments of the ship itself, suggest the presence of an easterly to westerly bottom-flowing current. Within the main wreckage site, scientists have identified currents trending from northwest to southwest, possibly influenced by the larger wreckage components altering their flow.
To the south of the bow section, the currents display notable variability, fluctuating between northeast, northwest, and southwest directions.
Titanic Wreckage Facing Eventual Burial by Sediment as Currents Gradually Shift
Experts anticipate that the ongoing movement of currents will eventually lead to the burial of the Titanic wreckage beneath layers of sediment. While concerns have been raised about the potential risks posed by these currents, Gerhard Seiffert, a deep-water marine archaeologist who recently conducted a high-resolution scanning expedition of the Titanic, reassures that as long as a submersible has power, the currents in the area do not pose a significant threat.
“In the context of our mapping project, the currents presented challenges for precision mapping rather than safety risks to any operational deep-sea vehicle at the Titanic site,” affirms Seiffert.
As the wreckage has spent over a century on the seabed, it has undergone gradual deterioration. The initial impact of the vessel’s two main sections hitting the seafloor caused significant twisting and distortion of large sections of the wreck. Over time, microbes that feed on the ship’s iron have formed rust-like structures known as “rusticles,” accelerating the degradation process. Notably, scientists estimate that the stern, which endured greater damage, experiences 40 years of deterioration faster than the bow due to heightened bacterial activity.
“The wreck is continuously collapsing due to corrosion,” explains Seiffert. “However, as long as a safe distance is maintained—avoiding direct contact or penetration through openings—no harm is expected.”
Sediment flows
While highly improbable, instances of abrupt sediment flows along the ocean floor have been documented to cause damage and displacement of human-made objects in the past. The most significant occurrences, like the one in 1929 that severed transatlantic cables near Newfoundland, are typically triggered by seismic events such as earthquakes. Although there is an increasing awareness of the risks associated with these events, there is currently no indication that such an event is involved in the disappearance of the Titan submarine.
Over time, researchers have discovered evidence suggesting that the seabed surrounding the Titanic wreck has experienced significant underwater landslides in the distant past. These massive sediment cascades are believed to have originated from Newfoundland, forming an “instability corridor” and depositing sediment layers up to 100m (328ft) thick. However, these destructive events occur extremely infrequently, with estimates suggesting they take place once every tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, similar to the eruption frequency of Mount Vesuvius or Mount Fuji, according to marine geology research scientist David Piper from the Geological Survey of Canada.
More common are turbidity currents, where water becomes laden with sediment and flows down the continental slope, often triggered by storms. Piper notes a repeat interval of approximately 500 years for these events. However, the seafloor topography in the vicinity of the Titanic site, including the presence of “Titanic Valley,” would likely divert any sediment flows away from the wreck itself.
Both Gerhard Seiffert and David Piper express doubts that such geological events played a role in the disappearance of the Titan submersible.
Apart from these findings, there are still unexplored geological features around the wreck site. During a previous OceanGate expedition to the Titanic, former French Navy diver and submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet discovered a mysterious blip on sonar in 1996, which turned out to be a rocky reef teeming with marine life. Nargeolet had hoped to explore another blip detected near the Titanic wreck during subsequent expeditions.
As the search for the missing craft continues, little is known about the fate of the Titan and its crew. Nonetheless, the risks associated with visiting the Titanic wreck remain as pertinent today as they were in 1986 when the first individuals laid eyes on the sunken vessel during their journey to the depths of the ocean.
